Nag Hammadi Codex XIII (designated bysiglumNHC XIII) is apapyruscodex with a collection of early ChristianGnostic texts inCoptic (Sahidic dialect). The manuscript is generally dated to the 4th century, though there is some debate regarding the original composition of the texts.[1]
The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a codex. It is written in Sahidic dialect.[2][3] The codex contains:Trimorphic Protennoia andOn the Origin of the World.[4] It is the only surviving copy of theTrimorphic Protennoia.[5]
The text is written inuncial letters. It is well written in an informal book hand. There is no punctuation, no division between sayings. Thenomina sacra are contracted in an unusual way (ΠΝΑ,ΧΣ,ΧΡΣ,ΙΗΣ), the words at the end of line are abbreviated.[6] The scribe is identical with the scribe A ofCodex II. The scribe employed several styles.[7] The scribe made several errors ofhaplography (omitted letter N in 38.7; 48.28; omitted OY 40.18; omitted T in 48.15) anddittography (42.26; 45.31).[8]
The so-called "Codex XIII" is in fact not a codex, but rather the text ofTrimorphic Protennoia, written on "... eight leaves removed from a thirteenth book in late antiquity and tucked inside the front cover of thesixth."[9][10] Only a few lines from the beginning ofOrigin of the World are discernible on the bottom of the eighth leaf.
It was buried with the otherNag Hammadi codices, where it lay until the day of its discovery in 1945.[10]
On June 8, 1952 theCoptic Museum received the codex. The text of the codex was edited by Gesine Schenke.[11] It was examined and described by James J. Robinson in 1979.[12] Currently the manuscript is housed at the Department of manuscripts of theCoptic Museum (Inv. 10545) inCairo.[2]
^Bentley Layton,Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars, BRILL, 1989, p. 5.
